Forum Feature : Chat

[HAARP]

Well, I liked the old one better aswell. It offered more and was nicer than IRC. On the other hand, being able to connect with your own client is an advantage.

The chat also suffers from IRCitis now. Lots of people idling, nobody saying anything.

[Incubus 24-7]

i was able to recite copious amounts of vogon poetry

Oh freddled gruntbuggly/thy micturations are to me/As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee.

Groop I implore thee, my foonting turlingdromes. And hooptiously drangle me with crinkly bindlewurdles,

Or I will rend thee in the gobberwarts with my blurglecruncheon............

these lines work better with two pan-galactic-gargle-blasters in your system (your ears don't bleed so fast...)
keep up the poetry kirk!

[xrm]

Well, I liked the old one better aswell. It offered more and was nicer than IRC. On the other hand, being able to connect with your own client is an advantage.

The chat also suffers from IRCitis now. Lots of people idling, nobody saying anything.

Where's the harm? You have the people who were idling there anyway and the ones who were using the webchat combined, more people is better in my book.
That channel was a lot more active back in January and February, I'm sure once a new update comes out and people come back to check out MWLL again there will be more talk on IRC too.

[HAARP]

Well, I liked the old one better aswell. It offered more and was nicer than IRC. On the other hand, being able to connect with your own client is an advantage.

The chat also suffers from IRCitis now. Lots of people idling, nobody saying anything.

Where's the harm? You have the people who were idling there anyway and the ones who were using the webchat combined, more people is better in my book.

Well, in theory.
The problem lies in IRC clients and the webchat. They do not notify you of new messages, and switching tabs every few minutes and notice that there's nothing new gets old fast. The old AJAX webchat had a subtle sound effect on new messages.
Yes, I know that you can configure some IRC clients to do just that, but it's not perfect. Most chat users will use the webchat anyway, and those clients that can do that will become annoying in the process. They don't have anything subtle between "annoy mode" and "no notification at all".

Seraph, isn't there a better web IRC client that has such a sound effect?

[Seraph]

The client used is just a link to the Webchat offered by Quakenet. If you have a better version I am all up for installing it instead locally - as long as it doesn't put load on the server.

[Cpl.Alareth<1FSAC/AFFS>_HG]

The client used is just a link to the Webchat offered by Quakenet. If you have a better version I am all up for installing it instead locally - as long as it doesn't put load on the server.

CGI:IRC works pretty well

http://cgiirc.org

[Seraph]

That's another constant traffic script that sends data back and forth between the server and the user. Preferred is a Java app that runs only on the client without the need to keep a connection open to the server. Looking at their demo the functions look pretty much the same as the webchat used right now.

[HAARP]

Well, I found this
http://www.pjirc.com/main.php
plus this
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=182

No idea if it's any good though. Also keep in mind that not everybody has Java.

[(TLL)Sky_walker]

Everything using server resources while operating have nearly no chances of being implemented. So looks like the only possible option is Java.

http://www.pjirc.com/main.php <- doesn't work for me. I get error when trying the Demo.

[Seraph]

Well, I found this
http://www.pjirc.com/main.php
plus this
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=182

No idea if it's any good though. Also keep in mind that not everybody has Java.

SMF Package incompatible with this version we are running. Also looked at that one.

Ditto on error trying that demo.

[HAARP]

Which error? It works for me, but throws security warnings.

[AoP]

Also keep in mind that not everybody has Java.

You'd be surprised. Many people install it without even noticing respectively caring.

On the general issue of the chat, it's basically same ol', same ol'... since it's been started way back, it's had a hard time seeing some activity and the problematic nature of IRC clients and its webinterfaces, as correctly pointed out by you, doesn't make it a convenient or enjoyable chat experience.
In all honesty, something like a jabber chat room might be more interesting... yet for obvious reasons - server load - it won't be an option either unfortunately.

[CHHš Deathshade]

Maybe this could be something that can be hosted by a diff server once the release is out. I thought it was pretty slick myself.